On October 27, "Fudan Silicon Valley Forum of Management Masters" was successfully held at our School. Mr. S. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Co-Chairman of the Board of Infosys Technologies Co., Ltd., reviewed the extraordinary past development of Infosys Ltd. and summarized the experience in developing enterprise management in developing countries and taking the road to internationalization in a speech titled "Creating a Global Company from a Developing Country". Professor Patrick Moreton, the associate dean of the Olin Business School at Washington University, hosted this forum.

Mr. S. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Co-Chairman of the Board of Infosys Technologies Co., Ltd., is signing his name

Core of Management

As one of the founders of Infosys, Mr. Gopalakrishnan reviewed the history of the company's growth. He said that when the company faced lack of funds and the relative backwardness of India's economy after being established in 1981, the dream of globalization became the source of the motive force behind their progress. After enduring great hardships in pioneer work and laying a solid foundation for the company's development in the first ten years, the company timely seized and used an restructuring opportunity, actively cooperated with European and American countries, became the first Indian company to be listed in the United States in 1996, and then took steady steps on the road to globalization.

In Mr. Gopalakrishnan's opinion, the enterprise's success lies in tapping its unique advantages on the basis of a clear market orientation and improving its competence by means of improving client value, lowering cost, shortening cycles, improving productivity, enhancing the customer base, improving product comfort, etc., while the enterprise's cultural credos are spiritual pillars integrating and uniting these fragmented tactics.

Then, Mr. Gopalakrishnan summarized the company's value system as "C-LIFE": Client value, Leadership by example, Integrity and transparency, Fairness and Excellence. He said: quality and innovation are an enterprise's core competence, products and services need to be tailored to customers, and special attention should be paid to segment markets. Meanwhile, a strong team is critical. Enterprises should pay attention to fostering talents, realize "people-first" respect for employees and humanistic training mechanisms, and adopt different personnel strategies. All these are secrets of fostering and employing elite talents. On this basis, enterprise rules should follow the principle of easiness, i.e. "easy to understand, easy to follow and easy to communicate", to create a good work atmosphere. At last, he emphasized the importance of moral behavior and pointed out the company's greatest achievement: it proved that wealth could be created in legal and moral ways. An enterprise’s assumption of social responsibility and moral behavior are the basis of achieving sustainable success.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan is speaking at the forum

Development Road: Sustainable and Steady Model

After the brilliant speech, Mr. Gopalakrishnan and Professor Moreton also carried out in-depth discussion and communication with attendants on many topics such as the management and growth of enterprises in developing countries. In answer to the question of "how should enterprises in developing countries take the road to internationalization", Mr. Gopalakrishnan said that enterprise development is a long-term process requiring a relatively mature market. Enterprises in developing countries should focus on current goals and take the road to steady long-term development. With the home country's economic development and social progress, enterprises can be expected to gradually grow into top brands soon through the fostering of talents and governments' cooperation. In answer to the question of "is Indian companies’ development model suitable for Chinese enterprises", Mr. Gopalakrishnan also emphasized the importance of the model of sustainable steady development and its universal applicability to developing countries.

In the summarization speech, Professor Moreton said that Infosys Ltd., an excellent example of a successfully built global enterprise in a developing country, provided precious experience and motivation for the globalization of enterprises in developing countries. As long as enterprises in developing countries are good at running enterprise cultures, pay attention to fostering talents, shoulder social responsibility and form sustainable competence, they will certainly go steadily on the road to globalization.

As the country having the most young labor force in the world, India has very strong competitive ability in the fields of IT and service outsourcing. How to carry out learning and cooperation with emerging economies such as India has become an important topic about the future development of countries and enterprises. As a business school having a strong sense of social responsibility and the vision of long-term development, the School hopes to use various quarters’ resources and build high-end platforms so that excellent enterprises in different countries and regions, especially in emerging economies, can carry out extensive dialogue and cooperation. The School will carry on its consistent sense of mission, make full use of related resources such as the　Forum, and create good exchange platforms and development space for the growth of Chinese enterprises and management talents.

October 31, 2011